


Chewing Gum

by wontonwoo



Category: SEVENTEEN (Band)
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Smut, meanie
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-03-12
Updated: 2018-03-12
Packaged: 2019-03-30 02:50:54
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 2,979
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13941000
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/wontonwoo/pseuds/wontonwoo
Summary: quick disclaimer that i’m reposting this from another platform (still my story of course). it is also my first? so i’m sure you’ll understand that this story is a whole mess. updates will come quickly until i catch up with my original updates from that other platform. shorter chapters will be combined so they’re closer to 1,000 words each! thank you for reading~





	1. one

Mingyu walked into work with that typical "leave me alone i'm irritated" look on his face. It has been raining for the past 4 days and nobody was happy about it, especially not Mingyu.

He walked to the back room of the cafe he worked at as the guy before him's shift was nearly over, but before he could get his apron, name tag, etc. his boss stepped into the room and gave him a dirty look.

"Good afternoon, Mr. Lee. Is there something I can do for you?" Mingyu gave him the fakest smile possible and hoped his boss couldn't sense the hatred boiling up within him.

"Why didn't you show up to work last night?"  
"Last night? My shifts on weekends are from 7 AM to 2 PM, why would I need to be here at night?" Mingyu was confused.  
"I called you and said I would need you at 6. A woman picked up and said she notified you yet you still had the nerve to disobey me and my request?"  
"I'm sorry. Nobody told me you needed me here. I apologize for not showing." Mr. Lee was a complete asshole but Mingyu knew he had to keep this job.  
"I'm extending your shift today. Instead of closing and going home, I want you to stay after and deep clean the entire cafe. When I get here tomorrow morning, it better be spotless. And don't don't forget to polish the floors, clean the windows, and scrape underneath tables for gum or anything else these peasants have littered the place with." Mr. Lee turned around as if to walk away.  
"But sir!"  
Mr. Lee looked back at Mingyu and in the most evil tone said, "If I didn't know any better, I would have thought you just asked for me to fire you."

Mingyu slammed his hand on the door and walked out to the front counter. There was no way that bastard was actually allowed to treat him this way. The boy who was previously working looked at Mingyu and frowned which told Mingyu he heard everything.

About 5 minutes later, with no one coming into the cafe, the boy left. "Bye, Seungcheol!" Mingyu called out to him and waved.

2 hours into his shift. Unlike most weekdays there were hardly any customers. It was usually pretty busy but the cafe was still filled with silence. He walked over to the sound system and plugged his phone in. If there were no customers he might as well have some music to listen to.

He opened Spotify and put on his playlist of favorites. WJSN's Secret began playing over the store's speakers. He quietly hummed along and went to grab some cleaning supplies. That way, he wouldn't have to stay late when he was just sitting with nothing to do.

After an hour of cleaning, he finally got to his last few jobs which he absolutely dreaded.

He walked up to the windows with some spray and a cloth. Luckily, the cafe was located in a mall so he didn't have to stare into darkness or he would probably be too pussy to do it. After 20 minutes of having people awkwardly stare at him, he grabbed a scraper and a pan to deal with all of the gum. This was definitely his favorite job!

He got down under the first table and began scraping gum and other... "unknown substances" out from under the table. He cringed as he noticed a few pieces that were so old, they crumbled.

A little while later, he found himself at the last table. His shift was almost over too so he was glad he was getting the cleaning done now. He knelt down and got into an uncomfortable position and went to scrape some gum off. Before he did, he noticed some sort of paper stuck to the underside of the table. He wanted to read it despite how disgusting it would be to touch it. He scraped it off and grabbed a napkin to set it on.

He sat down at the table and started unfolding the little scrap of paper. He was really curious to see what it said, it if it even said anything at all. He was surprised at what he found. A phone number. Underneath, it read:

_If lonely, shoot me a text._

Mingyu sat there contemplating if he should but just shook it off and put the paper into his pocket. He went back to finishing the last table and got ready to close.

"Just 2 more minutes.." He sighed as he stared at the clock. He lost the will power to wait and just turned the sign on the door to closed, locked the door, and watched the lights go off as he walked through the mall and to the parking lot. He got into his car and drove home.

It took him the whole ride to remmeber the piece of paper in his pocket. He pulled into the garage, anxious to do something about the phone number.

"Hey Mom i'm back." Mingyu kissed his mom on the forehead and started for the stairs.  
"There's food on the stove, sweetie.. Make sure to eat some if you're hungry." she called up to him.

Mingyu sat down at his desk and pulled the paper out of his pocket and got out his phone.

_What should I do with you?_ He thought to himself. _Oh shit, the time._ He entered the number into his contacts and put the paper somewhere safe. It was already very late so he thought he should figure out if he should contact the person or not tomorrow.

With that he plugged in his phone, rushed through his homework, and tried to fall asleep despite being anxious to see who the owner of the number really is.


	2. two

7 hours later, Mingyu finally got up and and was certainly happy to. He set his alarm to 10 minutes earlier than usual so he could get ready and still have time to text the number he found the previous day.

He rolled out of bed to take a shower and brush his teeth. When he returned, he put on his uniform and studied himself in the mirror with disgust. He never really found himself as attractive as his friends at school. Girls used to approach him constantly but at the beginning of senior year, they all stopped.

Mingyu had thought he was doing something wrong... _Did I gain weight? Is my hair styled differently? Is it my breath? What am I doing that drives people away?_ His head was constantly filled with thoughts like this.

He went back to the bathroom to fix his hair, but decided to do it a little differently. Along with the help of some gel, Mingyu decided to part his hair a lot farther over than he normally did while making sure it stayed down well enough so that it didn't end up looking like a tidal wave atop his head.

After playing with it for a while he finally gave up and went back to his room. He sat down at his desk and pulled out his phone, finally getting time to text the person. Surely they would answer during the time while he was at school. That way, he had school to distract him instead of sitting around and hopelessly waiting for a response. He typed in his password and hit messages. He entered in the info needed and thought up something to send.

** Me: **   
_Hi. I found your number on the underside of a table in the cafe that I work at. I was wondering if we could talk?_

He nearly cringed at what he decided to say. It sounded desperate even to him. He brushed it off and waited anxiously for an answer and decided to spend his last 8 minutes before he had to leave for school, on YouTube. Eventually Mingyu got sucked into 1,000 degree knife videos and thought it was time to call it quits. He exited YouTube and went back to check and see if the person had answered him by any chance.

_'No New Messages'_

Expected.

He got up from his desk, making sure he was ready to go and headed down the stairs. His mom was already gone for work and his dad was currently on a business trip in the States. Making sure to lock the door behind him, he dashed out of the front door and started for his friend Hansol's house. They had started walking together towards the end of 7th grade and have stuck to the same routine ever since. It was quite nice actually.. They treated each other as if they were counselors. Telling one another about their problems, fears, secrets, and anything else that was on their minds.

"Hey," Hansol said as he walked out onto his front porch. He jumped down the steps beside Mingyu and gave his shoulder a friendly slap. Usually the mornings were very quiet between them. This time was just silent time enjoyed by the two as they thought about their plans for the day.

"Hey can I ask for some advice?" Mingyu speaking up took Hansol by surprise but he nodded, waiting to see what he could do for him. "Last night at work I found someone's phone number stuck under a table.."

"A phone number? Do you know whose it is?"  
"Not sure.. It just said to text them when lonely. I wanted to know who it was so I just took the paper and tried texting them before I left a while ago."  
"What did you say?" Hansol found it kind of funny that someone like Mingyu would even take the number in the first place.  
"I don't remember, something along the lines of asking if we could talk."  
"Wait why did you take the number?"

Mingyu began to focus on the cracks of the sidewalk as they continued walking. He wasn't quite sure of the reason he took the number. He thought he could find someone to talk to anonymously so he could just be honest with someone instead of being embarrassed by his feelings.

"Mingyu. You aren't feeling... lonely, are you?"   
"Haha no! That isn't the case here. Just curiosity." Hansol noticed the doubt in his tone but brushed it off. If Mingyu wasn't his best then it would probably be better to let him sort things out on his own. Even if he did offer to listen to Mingyu, he would resist.  
"Alright.." Hansol sighed.

They arrived at school and parted ways. Mingyu still anxious for a response from the unknown number, felt his phone vibrate and automatically noticed that it was a text back from the same number he found the night before.


	3. three

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> quick disclaimer that i’m reposting this from another platform (still my story of course). it is also my first? so i’m sure you’ll understand that this story is a whole mess. updates will come quickly until i catch up with my original updates from that other platform. shorter chapters will be combined so they’re closer to 1,000 words each! thank you for reading~

_'1 Unread Message'_

Mingyu opened his phone and eagerly looked at the unknown person's response.

** Cafe Person?: **  
_Oh hi.. uh.. I never really thought anyone would actually find that number. Is this legit?_

**Me:**  
_Yeah. My name is Mingyu by the way._  
Kim Mingyu. I hope you don't mind  
me talking to you.

  
Within 20 seconds he got another reply. _Already? Woah._ He thought.

**Cafe Person:** _Haha no I don't mind at_  
all. Having someone contact me was my main goal anyways. I'm just surprised  
that someome finally found it after  
3 whole years.

** Me: **  
_WOAH 3 YEARS?_

**Cafe Person:** _Yup. I would have_  
responded earlier but I forgot  
all about it and was super  
confused at first.

** Me: **  
_No worries I probably would have  
forgotten too._

** Cafe Person: **  
_Anyways.. I'm Woozi. It's nice to  
meet you Mingyu._

** Me: **  
_Aye nice to meet you too. And just to let you know, you can talk informally and freely to me. Otherwise it feels forced._

** Cafe Person: **  
_Oh thank God I was already sweating  
from being too nice._

** Me: **  
_I RELATE ON A SPIRITUAL LEVEL_

** Me: **  
_Anyways I gtg, school awaits.  
That reminds me, how old are you?_

** Cafe Person: **  
_I'm a Senior in high school, wbu?_

** Me: **  
_Wow same._

** Cafe Person: **  
_Nice. Well as you said,  
school calls. Let's chat later hm?_

Mingyu smiled down at his phone and continued to his locker. His first class was History. He grabbed his materials and headed to class.

\--

As soon as Mingyu walked in, he found his friends, Seungcheol and Hoshi, and anxiously went over to tell his buds about the whole number incident.

"Ahh hey Gyu"  
"Hey.. I have an interesting story for ya" Mingyu had a grin plastered on his face which worried his friends for the worst reasons.

"So last night I was closing up at the cafe and when I was scraping gym out from underneath the table, I fou-"  
"Wait." Seungcheol cut him off. "You? Scraping gum? From underneath a table? Since when have you ever tried that hard?"  
"Oh my god let him live for once." Hoshi slapped him on the arm and laughed.

"Just listen to him idiot."  
"Idiot? Who are you calling idiot, punk?" Seungcheol stood up and got way too close to Hoshi's face as if he had authority. Pfft.  
"GUYS." Mingyu flicked them both in their foreheads which earned him 2 irritated faces. "How about you try listening to me"

"AS I WAS SAYING" he shouted. "I found someone's number stuck under one of the tables and I texted it this morning. Turns out it's a guy our age named Woozi. He seems pretty cool from what I've learned so far."

"Woozi? What kind of name is that?"  
"Shut the fuck up, Hoshi" Seungcheol did air quotes as he said Hoshi's name and they began glaring at eachother.

Mingyu mumbled to himself "And why do I call these losers my friends?"  
"What did you just say?" The others snapped in unison.  
"Haha nothing."

To Mingyu's advantage, the bell rang and they took their seats. Hoshi and Seungcheol still shooting dirty looks at each other then at Mingyu over and over until they strained their eyes so much that they nearly wanted to pry them out with tiny silicone spatulas.

It was 5 minutes before the bell rang indicating the end of class and the teacher gave up. The class was being exceptionally disruptive today and it would be a huge lie to say that the 3 friends weren't adding to the chaos.

It was finally time to leave that version of hell and move on to the next. Thank god he didn't have the idiot and the punk in his next class. Art.

Mingyu was always a fan of art but he never really told anyone about it. He made excuses saying thing like 'Oh they just put me in that class because there was no room in the classes I wanted' or 'It must have been a mistake.. I wouldn't want to bother anyone about it though' He just so happened to share a secret love of art with his friend Chan though. He and Chan had art together every year since 5th grade and they loved it

-

"Yo Mingyu come here" Chan motioned for him to sit down in the empty seat next to him. He pulled out his phone and pulled up a video on Twitter of a cute little pink haired guy singing a song he wrote.

"AWW WHAT A BABY" Mingyu squealed.  
"Mingyu your gay is showing."  
Mingyu cleared his throat and lowered his voice. "Gay who?" The two laughed. 

"Anyways I found this guy on YouTube and his Twitter is full of great songs. Some original some covers. They're all really amazing."  
"Sweet what's his user and channel name?"  
"I'll text them to you later. His name is Woozi."  
"Woozi??" Mingyu recognized the name from his texts earlier with the cafe guy.  
"Lee Jihoon actually but he goes by Woozi"  
"Hm.. well I'll make sure to check him out later." Mingyu and Chan exchanged smiles and the teacher walked in.

"Morning, class!"  
"Good morning" Everyone said at once.  
"Today we will be starting a new project. This piece will portray 3 very important parts of your life, whether that be family, friends, school, music, or anything else you have interest in."

He went on about the rest of the rules and let the students get their supplies.

"What are you gonna do?"  
"Not sure Gyu."  
"Well for starters, is it a painting or drawing? Colored pencils? Chalk pastels? Materials?"  
"Since when were you so interested?"  
"I don't know.. is it going to have something to do with Seokmin by any chance?" Mingyu had a scary expression on his face and poked him right in the chest.

About a month ago, Chan decided to tell Mingyu about his crush on a guy named Seokmin. He was in their art class this year and he caught Chan's eye. They had only talked a few times before but he was sure he was "in love".

"Shut it!" Chan slapped Mingyu's finger away from him and move it to Mingyu's lips. "What if he heard you??"  
Mingyu chuckled and got up to retrieve their supplies.

"So what is it you want to use for your project again? Perhaps Seokmin's-"  
Chan kicked Mingyu in the ass and smiled sweetly while saying "Water color paints please hyung" Mingyu winced and got their materials.

They then started sketching and planning their work and listened to music together.   
Class went by quickly and they decided to walk to study hall together since they and the rest of their friends were all in the same class. 

Out of nowhere, Seokmin appeared.

"Hey Mingyu can we talk?"  
"Me?" He raised an eyebrow and glanced quickly at Chan to catch a slight glimpse of his shocked but dissaponted face.  
"Mm. Come to my locker with me?"

The boys went upstairs to Seokmin's locker while Chan continued to class, his eyes directed at the floor.


End file.
